Dad gets 18 months for shaking death of 1-month-old daughter (Pasadena, Maryland)

Dad JOHN WAYNE WIRICK has been sentenced to only 18 months in jail for the shaking death of his 1-month-old daughter. Dad gets the sweet plea deal (guilty of manslaughter only) despite the fact that he did not tell the truth about what happened to hospital workers. So what did happen? All we see here is that the baby wouldn't stop "fussing" and that daddy was having a "bad day." What kind of b---sh-- "explanation" is that?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bal-wirick1103,0,3134542.story

Arundel father gets 18 months in baby's death
By Andrea F. Siegel andrea.siegel@baltsun.com
8:11 p.m. EST, November 2, 2009

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bal-wirick1103,0,3134542.story

As his wife sobbed Monday in an Anne Arundel County courtroom, a Pasadena man was sentenced to serve 18 months in jail for shaking the couple's 1-month-old daughter to death.

Judge Paul A. Hackner suspended the rest of a six-year sentence for John Wayne Wirick, 33, and added five years of probation, saying Wirick "allowed his anger, his frustration, to get the better of him."

Assistant State's Attorney Kathleen Rogers said Wirick gave detectives two accounts of what happened to Lilyanna A. Wirick before he told them: "She wouldn't stop fussing. I was having a bad day."

The baby died Jan. 15, six days after she was taken to the Baltimore Washington Medical Center and was transferred to Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

In an agreement in August, Wirick pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which has a maximum sentence of 10 years –– and charges of fatal child abuse, which has a maximum prison term of 30 years, and other charges were dropped.

A side issue was the baby's medical care. District Public Defender William Davis said that the initial hospital care might have harmed the child, though Wirick set off the events leading to her death. Rogers said Wirick did not tell hospital workers he had shaken the baby, which might have influenced the treatment.